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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

I know this is the Jags. I know they are probably one of the two worse teams in the league. But…this IS the NFL…The league of parity. And coming off such an emotional high of beating the 49ers on national TV…this game just smells like a let down waiting to happen.

In many ways we will need to play better than the 49er game. The Jags will come in here fired up and with a “what-the-hell” mentality. No one wants to come “home” and get blown out. And for this reason the Jags players will be fighting for their new head coach and playing loose.

In order to avoid a colossal upset of epic proportions we will need to take care of the ball and avoid foolish mental errors (including penalties).

Great teams…championship teams…play mature and disciplined in a game like this. I’m excited to see if we can cross another bridge in a situation that is much more difficult than what it looks like on paper.

Plus Bradley know our team very, very well. Before the season started this was one game I was/is very worried about. Hopefully the Hawks calm my nerves and be up 30-0 at halftime. We need to play very tough.

BTW- This notion that the Seahawks are an undisciplined team is untrue imo.
How many other teams have been in every single game last year?
Just like Eric said on the live chat, the penalties are a result of their physical play, not a lack of discipline. (much like the great Raiders of the 70s and 80s).

BTW- I think the 49ers have more penalties then the Seahawks have so far this year.
Also- isn’t it great to see Breno play smart football? He’s finally learning how to bait the opponent.

In years past, when Seattle had to travel to the East Coast for a 10am game, I felt like it was almost a certainty that a loss was coming. I felt trepidation this year, but we won in Carolina.

In years past, when Seattle had a good team and one of the leagues truly elite teams was matched up against them, I would have a feeling of doom and hope they could hang on for dear life to somehow eek out a win. And yet they absolutely dominated a Superbowl favorite this past Sunday night.

In years past, when Seattle was facing a clearly inferior foe, I’d worry myself sick knowing they were probably going to “play down to the level” of their opponent, and possibly (even likely) lose the game.

Not this year.

Not this team.

For once in my life as a Seahawks fan I feel like utter destruction awaits the visiting team. The Jags aren’t going to like what is about to happen to them.

We have a team, now, that is constructed in a manner, and plays in a fashion that I have always envied and desired: the Seahawks are a physically imposing team, athletically talented, with an amazing combination of size and speed. We have a front office that has figured out how to mine the draft and free agency for quality talent at all 53 roster spots. We have, at long last, a franchise QB and one of the two toughest running backs in the league.

And these guys – most importantly – play like they’re going to kill the other team on every snap.

I don’t remember a defense this imposing since ’85. What I saw Sunday night, against a highly respected and nationally touted 49ers team was nothing short of brutality. Our defensive front four rushed the QB like their skin was on fire and their life depended on hitting him. Our DB’s swarmed like angry hornets. Even Sherman laid out a WR as if the poor guy had been hit by a tank.

This team is physical on both sides of the ball. They hit people. Hard.

And I just don’t see PC and his staff (or Wilson and Sherman for that matter) letting this team go easy on the Jags, or taking them too lightly. Wilson is going to want to come out and prove his early jitters are behind him. He’s going to want to be perfect. The defense is going to play with a chip on its shoulder all season.

Good Lord… and we’re still missing Clemmons, Irving, Browner and Harvin.

Arizona Cardinals: When quarterbacks have targeted Patrick Peterson, they have a perfect Quarterback Rating of 158.3. They have completed eight of 10 passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns without an interception.

St. Louis Rams: In his first 31 games in the league, Robert Quinn had three games with six or more overall pressures. In his two games in 2013, he has had six or more pressures in both games.

San Francisco 49ers: In 2012 Colin Kaepernick was one of the most accurate passers under pressure with an Accuracy Percentage of 71.2%. In 2013 he is the least accurate in the league at 37.5%.

Seattle Seahawks: Last year Red Bryant had one of the worst Run Stop Percentages in the league for 4-3 defensive ends at 4.4%. This year he is leading the league at 14.8%.

Yeah, as I said in an earlier post, I don’t think we can reasonably expect the same level of emotional intensity from our guys in this one, as they had against their biggest rivals on national tv last week. So I think the game will likely be a little closer than we would like, but I’m still very confident of a win. And I bet we get a high level game from the mentally strongest guy on our team – our QB.

It took Pete Carroll three years to find his QB. A bunch of NFL teams are still looking. So Bradley can hardly be blamed for not finding a QB in his 1st 6 months on the job. Especially since Gabbert was a very high pick, so you have to see if he will pan out.

Other than Kaepernick, the 2011 draft hasn’t produced any sure-fire hits at QB (Newton is a monstrous talent who still likely to be a franchise in the making, but needs to be way more consistent.) The other guys are mediocre to terrible so far.

If Bradley follows the template of his mentor, he’s going to build the rest of his team 1st unless he finds a QB he’s in love with. If he doesn’t, he’ll stopgap the position like Carroll did.

Pro Football Focus: “In 2012 Colin Kaepernick was one of the most accurate passers under pressure with an Accuracy Percentage of 71.2%. In 2013 he is the least accurate in the league at 37.5%.”

Wow. Good example of a statistic that is misleading. How was that compiled? Some people really go overboard trying to apply statistics to football when in fact there are not a lot of compiled statistics that mean very much in football. PFF needs to wake up a little bit and get their heads out of their spreadsheets. I didn’t see Kaepernick being “inaccurate” on Sunday night. I saw him throwing the ball under pressure while moving around too much and I saw his receivers well covered and intimidated. Also, his receiver set was completely different that last year.

Stats can be very misleading. Such as the one on Petersen; no way to tell WHY he was or was not targeted on a given play. Was it anything he did or did not do?

For instance, how can anyone tell if the guy he was covering on any given play was the “hot” route, or why he was or was not the “hot” route? Which WR was he covering–ie, how often was he covering the best or second best WR?

One way to look at that stat is that his man was targeted only 10 times in 2 games. How many passing plays were called with Peterson on the field? What percentage of the defensive snaps did he play? What percentage of the snaps he played had passes called? What percentage was he outside corner vs slot corner etc etc etc?

Stats are a tool, but a limited tool. And it takes advanced analysis to properly use stats to form an opinion.

“It took Pete Carroll three years to find his QB. A bunch of NFL teams are still looking. So Bradley can hardly be blamed for not finding a QB in his 1st 6 months on the job. Especially since Gabbert was a very high pick, so you have to see if he will pan out.”

Teams can go years without finding a franchise QB. Look at Miami. That fan base is still waiting on the next Marino…

As for Gabbert – listen, I called this one before he was draft, but I’ll say it again: the kid isn’t an NFL QB. Period. End of story. He’s missing too many aspects to his game.

Bradly and Co. are going to have to mine the draft for a franchise guy. And with their win/loss record, they’ll be in position to do just that. My guess is Manziel is wearing a Jaguars jersey next year.

Bradley will draft Clowney if they get the first pick. The next best option is to trade down. Jags need help everywhere…he must have been PISSED when Seattle kept all our RB’s and DB’s and only cut Guy…bet he was hoping to nab another DB or two off the waiver wire…

I thought these were interesting comments from Earl Thomas. Has anyone noticed this?

“I’m challenging quarterbacks more as far as redefining how you can come up and play almost as a linebacker but still be playing middle field,” Thomas said.

“It’s about being real aggressive in the middle instead of baby-sitting the corners,” Thomas said. “Why should you baby-sit corners when you have good corners like that? My first three years, I left a lot of plays out there in the middle just because I was so worried about getting over there for Sherm or BB. But now that’s not the case.”

Our rushing offense ranks #7 in the league. Surprising especially after facing Carolina and SF – two teams with tough lines. Can’t be overly critical of our line. Interested to see how it plays out over the next several games.

“No play looked worse for the 49ers’ left guard than a third-quarter snap in which Red Bryant upended Iupati, who landed on his keister 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. It was a first-of-a-kind sight.”

Southendzone that’s hilarious! I guess mile high stadium should be moved to a lower altitude as well, thin air is an unfair advantage. I think 10:00 am starts on the east coast is more legit. I have a great idea; stop whining because you lost and get your fans to yell harder at games. It seems like bad sportsmanship to whine about the crowd noise because you got smoked.

Sluggo, I think STTBM and I were pretty civil to each other yesterday. (not so much the few days before that).

As a whole (concerning our offensive line) I think we have been in agreement with one another with regards to their overall play for sometime now. We don’t always agree with every individual player on the O-line, however I do respect STTBMs assessment as a whole.

I remember a couple years back that STTBM and I both took a lot of heat for our criticism of Moffitt and Carpenter.

I really wish this team would protect the passer better but they are so good at every thing else they do that I don’t think one major weakness is going to stop them.

We are so spoiled to have a team so young and good that I have (for the most part) stopped complaining so much about the O-line.

Pabs made a valid point the other day that several teams of late have Won the Super Bowl with a less then average O-line. And I think the Stealers won it with arguably one of the worst O-lines in the NFL.

I just love Earl’s attitude. I’m already penciling him in as all-Pro along with Sherman.

“It’s about being real aggressive in the middle instead of baby-sitting the corners,” Thomas said. “Why should you baby-sit corners when you have good corners like that? My first three years, I left a lot of plays out there in the middle just because I was so worried about getting over there for Sherm or BB. But now that’s not the case.”

Just when you think you couldn’t possibly hear anything dumber than you already have a Whiners fan will always surprise you. Someone should tell that whiny itch that if she and her fellow Whiner fans would put down the Napa Valley wine for a second that they could make some noise for their team as well.

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